


In Peace, Vigilance

by randomcanbian



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragon Age AU, F/F, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 17:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13322670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomcanbian/pseuds/randomcanbian
Summary: Laura, LaFontaine, and the rest of the squad enter a monster-infested forest in search of an ancient research site that may hold the answers to the latter's (figurative) prayers. When they meet trouble in the midst of a demonic grove, a strange woman steps in to save the day.Soon after, they find that her help comes with a few strings attached.





	In Peace, Vigilance

**Author's Note:**

> It's a Dragon Age AU, but I'm trying to make it as non-player friendly as possible, so you don't have to have played the games to understand this lil thing :-bd Anyway, hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> (BTW, here's a map of Ferelden, where the story is set, for those who are interested: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonage/images/3/31/Ferelden.png/revision/latest?cb=20110319021314)

Laura knew of the Korcari Wilds, had heard tales of the horrors lurking within its boundaries ever since she was a child. Anyone who had grown up in Ferelden knew to stay away from the area—between the aggressive Chasind, the demons and darkspawn, the rumored werewolves, and the thick, suffocating fog, stepping into the forest was just a slip away from signing your own death warrant.

For the umpteenth time, Laura wondered why she had agreed to accompany Laf on their research mission.

"Why, why,  _why_  did we split up with Danny and Perry," Laura muttered. She, Laf, Danny, and Perry had left camp hours ago, just as dawn broke. They had split into two groups, she and Laf assigned to searching through the west half of the wilds, and Danny and Perry the east end. Hours had passed since then and the sun should have been high in the sky, but the fog and the forest's dense, twisted canopy ensured that everything Laura saw was cast in a dim, eerie light.

Laura thought she saw something move out the corner of her eye. It turned out to be nothing when she had turned to face it, but she wasn't surprised. She'd been seeing flashes of movement for the past hour, and every time she turned around there had been nothing to find. It was just her paranoia, fueled by the forest's immensely creepy vibes.

"So we're looking for a clearing, right?" Laura asked Laf. The researcher was a few steps ahead of her, their right hand clutched tightly around the grip of their sheathed dagger. As emotionless as their face looked every time they turned back to talk to Laura, she knew they were just as unsettled by the wilds as she was. 

Laf glanced at her over their shoulder. "Yeah. A clearing, with several bodies of water and a lot of crumbling buildings." 

"Any idea how long we'll be walking?" 

"Told you back at the campsite, freshmeat, damn if I know," they replied, slowing their pace so that they ended up walking side-by-side with Laura. "I'm 99% sure the clearing exists; my guys interviewed a couple of the lucky sods who managed to escape this Makerforsaken forest, and a lot of the accounts mention ruins with similar descriptions. What I don't know is  _where_  the clearing is, even just an approximation. Most of the informants were half-starved and fleeing for their lives before they got out of the wilds, apparently. Couldn't tell how long or how far they walked."

"Oh." Laura frowned. "We told Danny and Perry we'd meet up with them at the campsite by Day 3, right? What happens if neither of us find it?"

"We go back to the Keep and wait," Laf sighed. "I sent a letter up to our guys in Tevinter last week. Asked if they could find any records or maps that mentioned Tevinter research sites here in Ferelden."

They looked pointedly at Laura. "I'm pretty sure one of the government bigwigs have a map stored there somewhere, but—if the research is what I think it is—it's pretty sensitive information. Even if our guys manage to steal it or bribe someone for it, it'd take at least a month just to find out who has it. Didn't want to wait that long if I could do something about it."

"I get it," Laura said.

She knew how important this was to Laf. Laf had been researching on the effects of darkspawn taint since even before Laura joined the Grey Wardens a year ago, and she also knew that they'd encountered a stumbling block a while back. They had been observing how magic affected the progression of the taint—with Perry's help, since they weren't a mage themself. It was this lack of magical knowhow that prevented Laf from furthering their research; their experiment with creation magic on tainted fungi from the Deep Roads showed promising results, but they had no idea what else to do. What spells should they cast? What runes should they try? What potions should they make? Laura had witnessed Laf mumbling to themself—or to her, sometimes—about possible avenues of research more times than she could count.

When the Orlesian Order of Wardens sent over a journal they'd found in one of their expeditions, Laf had been over the moons. It mentioned that the Ancient Tevinters did magical darkspawn studies somewhere in Ferelden; their notes, Laura knew, were all it took for Laf to get back on track.

"And honestly, the sooner you find inspiration, the better," Laura teased. "I don't think I can stand another month of you using me as a soundboard for all your ideas, Laf. Magic? Magic is cool. But magical theory? Magical theory is bleugh."

"You wound me, Hollis," Laf said, making a face and putting a hand to their chest. "And here I thought you were actually interested in everite's purifying proper—shit." Laf abruptly stopped walking. Laura followed suit.

"I did," she whispered. "What in Andraste's name was that?"

A crack had interrupted Lafontaine mid-sentence, as loud as a cannon shot in the forest's relative silence. It sounded like the branch that had broken underneath Laura, back when she had been climbing trees as a child.

The duo stood in place, scanning their surroundings to locate the source of the sound.

"Maybe a branch broke, because it was...old?" Laura ventured.

"We should have heard it land," Laf replied. Their brow was furrowed, mouth set into a grimace. They began unsheathing their daggers. "Something's not right."

As if at the sound of their words, the forest was suddenly filled with inhuman groaning, like a dozen wooden boards warping under a heavy load. And Laura—Laura finally knew what was making the sound.

"Sylvans," Laf whispered.

"Shiiiiiit."

Laf and Laura broke out into a run as the woods exploded into a flurry of movement. What had once been more-or-less innocuous trees came to life, their roots ripping away from their hold on the earth, their branches reaching down to become gnarled, twisted, arms.

"Tree demons," Laura gasped, "why did it have to be tree demons?"

She had been ready to fight since she stepped foot into the wilds. Darkspawn had crossed her mind. So did bears, and all manners of wild creatures that had been twisted by either magic or the darkspawn corruption. She'd even hyped herself up to go toe-to-toe with a werewolf. All these she'd have preferred over sylvans, trees taken up and twisted by demons that had entered this world from the Fade.

She could slice-up and maim werewolves if they couldn't be talked down. Hardy, fifteen-feet spruce were another matter entirely.

"Fuck," Laf cursed. They and Laura stopped.

The sylvans were huge, and consequently slow. They had managed to outrun the trio of trees that had initially lumbered towards them, but as they fled through the forest, more and more sylvans had come to life. They were now surrounded, six-or-so trees flanking them on the left and right, and a quartet blocking their way forward. And retreating would only mean running right into the outstretched branches of the three trees they had left behind.

"So I guess this is it," Laura said. She dropped her shoulder, lowering her back sheath to allow her to draw the greatsword from her back. The familiar weight in her hands was a grounding presence, a salve to soothe her panicked mind.

"Any chance you had that thing enchanted with a flame rune?" Laf asked, clutching their own daggers.

Laura shook her head.

"Okay," Laf said, mouth in a thin line. "Here's what we do. I have two combustion grenades with me right now. There's space between that one in the front and that one to our right. We run, aim the grenades at them to buy us some time, then get the fuck out of here. I don't see any more sylvans besides the ones surrounding us."

Laura nodded. "Got it," she said, tightening the grip on her sword.

"Okay," Laf responded. They sheathed one of their daggers and began taking out the glass vials strapped to their utility belt. Handing one to Laura, they continued: "Aim for the sylvan at the front, I'll take the one on the right. On my signal...GO!"

Laura ran like her life depended on it—which, actually, yeah. The broad part of her claymore rattled against her pauldron each step she took, and her right hand holding the glass vial was sweating up a storm inside her gauntlet. Maker above, she really did not want to die at the hands...branches?...of demonic trees.

The sylvans towered above them, the twisted and warped knots and lines in their bark eerily resembling faces screwed up in fear. Laura wondered if the demons had drawn inspiration from their own frightened expressions.

Laf threw their grenade at their target, and Laura took it as the cue to let loose her own. An intense heat overtook them as the glass vials shattered, and the creaking and groaning that had filled the air was suddenly replaced by unearthly snarls. The sylvans had stopped advancing, were instead shrinking away from the vibrant flames.

For a moment, it looked like they were actually going to make it.

And then, just as they were nearing the gap in the tree line, the flames began to flicker and die. The ground, the sylvan's leaves, their trunks—because of the Maker-damned fog everything was too moist to burn, even by potion fire.

"Laf, what do we—LAF!" Laura watched as one of the sylvans swung a branch as thick as their head into the warden's gut. They flew backwards, their back hitting the forest floor with a muffled thump. The sylvan stepped forward with all intentions of delivering a follow-up blow, so Laura ran as fast as she could to intercept.

"Come at me, you glorified stick!" Laura shouted. She dug her feet in and pointed the end of her claymore at the raging tree. Behind her she could hear Laf getting to their feet.

The sylvan growled at the woman in front of it before swinging a limb. Laura was prepared and body-rolled to the right, dodging the branch and bringing her closer to its trunk. She slashed at an overhanging limb, distracting the sylvan but leaving nothing more than a gash. Her sword was made to slice through flesh, not solid wood—it was more than obvious that staying to fight wasn't an option.

Laura turned to check her fellow Warden, jumping over a prehensile root. "You okay?"

"We're surrounded by sylvans and out of fire, freshmeat," they shouted back, weaving through the attacking branches of two sylvans that had neared, "but aside from that I'm fucking peachy!"

"Just had to check!" Laura screamed as she hacked off a branch. The sylvan had them moving backwards until she and Lafontaine were pressed against a great (inanimate) oak. A trio of the possessed trees surrounded them, and the rest could be seen just beyond their trunks. "How the shit are we going to get out of this?"

"I still have lyrium powder and a couple of fire crystals in my pack," Laf said, parrying a long, thin branch with their daggers. "I'll try to set something up. Cover for me."

Knowing Laf, they were going to make a bomb. Maker knows how powerful an explosion from that would be, especially with something as volatile as lyrium. But they had no other choice.

"Okay!" she shouted, sparing Laf a second's glance before blocking a speedy branch that was flying towards her chest.

Laura stood in front of the researcher as they crouched over their pack, the former taking and deflecting each and every blow the demon trees threw at them. The sylvans weren't letting up, and as moments flew by Laura felt the fatigue seeping into her body.

And then, a wave of heat washed over them. Laura watched as flames engulfed the sylvans in front of her, the fire burning brighter and hotter than anything she's ever seen. The demonic plants writhed and screeched as their bodies turned to charcoal. Ash and charred debris began falling overhead.

She was initially flooded with relief, but then soon realized that the fire was still blazing around them and they had no way of stopping it. Laura began moving backwards, as close to the great oak and as far away from the fire as she could possibly be. The heat was overwhelming, and the black smoke quickly replacing the air was suffocating.

"Laf, what did you do?" Laura gasped. She had taken out a piece of cloth from her satchel and held it over her mouth, doing as much as she could to avoid inhaling the soot. The researcher was still crouched, and when they looked up at Laura confusion was evident in their eyes.

"Laura, that wasn't me." They held up several crystals, still unspent.

"What?" She couldn't think clearly. The fire had sucked out all of the air. Her breathes were deep and rapid, but no matter what she did it wasn't enough. Her vision began to blacken, and the sound of LaFontaine's voice could barely be registered by her addled mind.

Eventually, she passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definition of terms, in order of appearance:  
> \- one of the Indigenous People found in the south of Ferelden  
>  \- monsters that usually reside in tunnels within the depths of the earth (called the Deep Roads), although some stragglers may come to the surface; they corrupt everything they touch; under special circumstances they may go to the surface in groups of thousands--this phenomenon is called the Blight and can only be stopped by the Grey Wardens  
>  \- an order of warriors, mages, and the like whose sole purpose is to prevent and end Blights  
>  \- tunnels within the earth that used to be part of the Dwarven Kingdom before being taken by the darkspawn  
>  \- Christ-like figure of one of their major religions  
>  \- a mineral used to power magic (similar to a mana source)


End file.
